2006-02-03

cubicle serfs, or the destiny of the white collar masses

I went to a "meeting" yesterday with a employment firm. So I dressed up in my interview clothes and drove out there. He's a semi-sleazy looking business man in a flashy, but expensive, suit. With a yellow tie, of course. Early in the meeting he mentions a fee, but continues talking so that I can't really ask him about it. He spends the next twenty minutes flattering me, telling me how they place everyone that they agree to find a place for, etc. If I were to just get in the "right" company, then all my other issues, such as not knowing what to do with my life will take care of themselves. He even fed off my fears and mentions the friends of his son in his early twenties, and how so many of them are working at cost-co, or in insurance, "not doing things that they went to school for." Then he tells me that the fee is $5,700. I'm actually a bit shocked, and just say, "I don't have that." What unemployed, recently graduated master's student does? None, except the independently wealthy. Most people in general don't either.

I've found it all a bit disheartening. I mean, once you are out of school, does is actually matter what you did? I'm beginning to realize that college gives us lower middle class people a false sense that life might be a meritocracy, when really if you don't have connections you will just be someone's admin assistant or cubicle serf. There are still two paths, even if we briefly interact in at university, the one for the rich and the one for the rest of us.

xanthium at 12:23 p.m.

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